Dramatic Irony - Novel Blog 6 (Slaughterhouse-Five)

"You needn't worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance."

~ Slaughterhouse-Five, page 145

Ooohh.... this is awkward. We are dealing with some major dramatic irony in this situation here. Both the reader and Billy Pilgrim know that Dresden is bombed (that's where a lot of Billy's mental instability originates), but the other soldiers don't know. This creates suspense for the reader throughout the rest of the book, especially at the end when Dresden actually is bombed. Actually, I thought the bombing was somewhat anti-climactic, but that's besides the point. This scene kind of gives the reader a sense of how Billy feels throughout his life - he knows just about everything that's going to happen, and he just has to sit and listen to other people's  speculations and comments even if they are completely wrong. Like this one. So we get to empathize with Billy a bit more and understand his helpless condition - we sort of watch his life play out along with him.

Suspense - Drama Blog 2 (Othello)

"Blest fig's-end! The wine she drinks is made of grapes. If she had been blest, she would never have loved the Moor."

~ Iago, Othello II.i.238-239

He can't even tell his best friend the truth.

4. How is dramatic suspense created? Contrast the amount of information possessed by the audience as the play proceeds with the knowledge that various individual characters have: what is the effect of such a contrast?

So basically, all the suspense in Othello is created by knowledge of information: who has it and when they will get it. Iago's scheming and true motives/nature are always known by him and the audience. Suspense is created on a level when the audience first knows of Iago's plan, then it drastically builds as we start to see parts of the plan unraveling and the undone deeds getting more and more complex and imminent. He gradually reveals information about what he will do next (usually at the end of an act or scene), which keeps us at the edge of our seats. The second part to the suspense is the other characters onstage. At this point, no one but Iago knows the extent of his plot (Roderigo knows a little, but not a sufficient amount). The audience then wonders who will find out first, when, and if the protagonists will find out before they react poorly to the lies Iago has planted.

Suspense. Or Lack Thereof - Short Story Blog 1, Week 1 (A Rose for Emily)

"Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint ad invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair."

~ William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily


Okay, that ending was pretty messed up. Although the end may give people the creeps, the story ironically lacks suspense. Usually, when horror movies/books or thrillers progress, you ascertain information as the plot continues - you find out one element of the real story at one time. Finally, the protagonist is mucking around in some situation they shouldn't be (i.e. breaking into that creepy neighbor's house and going through his stuff, going down into the basement after hearing strange noises, or doing some type of ancient voodoo to evoke the presence of a ghost to hopefully get rid of it, though you usually die afterwards), then, that big piece of evidence is found and the light bulb goes off in the protagonist's head. This is then followed with a chase/killing scene where either the good guy or the bad guy ends up dead. (I think horrors generally end with the good guy dying and thrillers with the bad guy. Not always, but it's just a speculation) Yes - Emily kills her husband so he won't leave her and sleeps with his dead body every night, but we aren't scared throughout because the story isn't in chronological order. I'm sure Faulkner actually did the non-chronological thing to create suspense, but it actually just created more questions. While we do want to know what's happening in this type of story, the plot was all screwed up because it jumped around so much that you had to read it two or three times before even understanding it. You kind of understood the ending, so it was almost like reading a spoiler alert beforehand. It would have been much more effective if Faulkner had stuck to chronological order and just given us pieces of information at a time. Now please enjoy this picture of a creepy old lady.